


secret notes and root beer floats

by N_Is_For_Knowledge



Series: Fictober ‘19 [2]
Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
Genre: Fictober 2019, Gen, Pre-Canon, Sugar Bowl Generation, also r is a little older than lem, also the incident with the sneaking instructor is the one mentioned in sybis, so r is at her first year of apprenticeship and l is at his last year of training, t for language, we need more lemony and r friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-16 13:36:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21037091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/N_Is_For_Knowledge/pseuds/N_Is_For_Knowledge
Summary: During her first year of apprenticeship, R receives a strange note.





	secret notes and root beer floats

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Prompt 2: “Just follow me, I know the area.”

R was probably supposed to be used to strange secret notes, but being only an apprentice, she was sadly not used to strange secret notes. That didn’t mean she hadn’t been trained for this.

The note (typed, betraying no familiar writing styles or handwriting) was clear instructions to meet at the Fountain of Victorious Finance at 12:30 sharp. It was not signed. Of course it wasn’t. No one was going to make this easy for her.

Her chaperone said, as they usually did, that she was not to assist or interfere with the case they currently were working on. Usually, that would seriously annoy her, but today was different.

The walk to the Fountain wasn’t that long, thankfully, and she made it to her destination with five minutes to spare. Thankfully, she’d brought a book, one that a friend had sent her. It was still wrapped in heavy brown paper.

She unwrapped it. It was Beezus and Ramona. Of course it was. She read it anyway, and remembered when Beatrice had first read the book, two years ago, and insisted, for two weeks straight, that everyone call her Beezus. R was very grateful that it had not stuck.

VFD had, among other things, trained her to acutely recognize when someone was looking at her, and she could feel it now, feel the uncomfortable prickling sensation on the back of her neck, strong enough to distract from the annotations in the book, all made in Beatrice’s messy, flowing handwriting, she couldn’t do this, it wasn’t safe, she had to head back-

“Hey.”

The voice was coming from somewhere behind her, but her back was to the fountain and there was no one in there. She looked inside, just in case, but that was enough time for the person to scoot up next to her. Only three people she knew were able to sneak up on her like that.

“Hello? Earth to Ramona?”

She finally looked next to her, and immediately felt very silly for thinking that this meeting was sinister.

“Don’t call me Ramona, L.”

The L in question pretended to look incredibly offended. “R, how could you?”

“Lemony, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at the Training Academy?”

Lemony leaned against the fountain, trying very hard to not get his hat wet. “Oh, yeah. I was suspended again.”

Again? Seriously? Back when she was still training, Lemony getting suspended was a regular occurrence, and it seemed like that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. “Then shouldn’t you be in the dorm?”

“I snuck out,” he said, acting like that was perfectly obvious.

“Why? It’s not like the dorms aren’t filled with books.”

“‘Cause I wanted to get a root beer float,” Lemony said, again acting like that was incredibly obvious, which it was to anyone who even knew him a little bit. “Come on.” He subsequently began to drag her to the nearest soda shop, very much like a toddler who wants to see a specific… toy, or something, R was really bad at metaphors.

But she was good at lists, and she was currently thinking of list number two-hundred and three, Reasons Lemony Snicket Does Stupid Shit:

1\. Because he tends to rush into things headfirst.

2\. Because he thought it would be funny.

3\. Because he does not give a fuck about you (exclusive to VFD instructors and people he hates).

4\. Because he does not give a fuck, just in general.

5\. Because he wanted a root beer float and/or money for a root beer float.

There were ten more items there to think about, and after that she added something to list two-hundred and twenty four, Times Lemony Snicket Got Suspended, while Lemony told her about just how he got suspended this time (it involved the Sneaking instructor, whom she had never particularly liked in the first place, and the semesterly exam, which she had always thought was needlessly complicated) until she noticed a lack of tugging hand on her arm.

“Lemony?” Lemony was looking around, desperately searching for a map or convenient sign.

“I’m sorry, R. I… this is my first time in the Financial District.”

“Then why did you say to meet here, you complete dumbass?”

“Uh… I…”

R sighed deeply. “Just follow me. I know the area.”


End file.
